Shady Grading

i.e. "Hey X, I was disappointed when I got a B+. I had been hoping for an A or A-, as you said this was the range I was in." You must also do this in person - not through e-mail or telephone. This is the key to the entire thing.

My experience is that it is always preferable to have communication in written, so you can point back to it later if need be. Such as him telling you not to rewrite your paper because you're on an A/A-. If you had that in an e-mail, you could just contact your administration and it would be sorted. If he told you in person, not much you can do. Other than trying to reason with him, but he does kinda sound like an a-hole.

The key to actually getting the grade changed is to meet in person.

The best of both worlds - set up the meeting via e-mail. In the e-mail, say something along the lines of what I suggested. This is the proper way to go about this. This doesn't appear possible for the OP, but this doesn't mean that a face-to-face meeting isn't preferable.

Maybe that would help. At my university we have a formal office to send complaints to, so wouldn't really be an option. It's still a bad thing to reduce someone's grade when you've specifically said you'd give an A tho.

Email the prof and ask that they explain the grade. Then go visit them.

"Dear Prof:

I was under the impression that I was going to get an A/A- in your course, but I was surprised to see that I had only earned a B+. Could you please explain why this discrepancy occurred? I am sure that understanding this would help me in the future... yadayadaBS.

Anyway, to the OP: Your prof's behavior is infuriating. Unfortunately, my cousin is a college professor (and a pretty young, cool one) and even he gets turned off when a student emails him asking to re-evaluate a grade. What's worse, the rest of the department is usually on the prof's side, and thinks of the student protester as a whiny brat.

I completely disagree with the above poster who said to shrug it off. Take it from me (I already have a second graduate degree) when I tell you that your undergrad GPA can be ridiculously welded to you--depending on your industry or field, it can follow you around for ten years after graduating. And you did A- work; that's what you deserve.

Email (as KeNo pointed out--always leave a paper trail) the professor back when he/she responds and say something like, "thanks for taking a second look at this for mne. I understand you're busy with the end of semester, and I appreciate you taking the time." You need to let him know this because it makes professors more amenable, according to my cuz.

As an update, I e-mailed the teacher. He said class participation dragged me down. He said he gave me a B in that. Considering I spoke more than anyone else in that class that's a ludicrous assessment. Then he said he gave me an A- on writing. Also, since he told me that I was an A for writing and redoing any papers would not help me, an A- for writing is out of line.

How can I fight this? All my other teachers will attest to the fact that I'm a valuable contributor to the class and participate a lot. They all gave me perfect grades in that regard.

Additionally, he said rewriting would be useless. Since he gave me an A- that was clearly not the case.

My plan is to contact the department chair. What would be the best way to win him to my side? It seems like it's my word against the professor's. Should I get all my other professors to sign a letter saying I was a valued contributor in their classes? What else should I do? I'll obviously meet with the chair in person to present my case.

I explicitly mentioned in the e-mail that I took his advice to not rewrite because he said I was in the A range. He didn't deny that he advised me that way when he e-mailed me back so that's a tacit acceptance of that point.

I completely disagree with the above poster who said to shrug it off. Take it from me (I already have a second graduate degree) when I tell you that your undergrad GPA can be ridiculously welded to you--depending on your industry or field, it can follow you around for ten years after graduating. And you did A- work; that's what you deserve.

That can't be true. Law School GPA is much more important when looking for a legal career, and I doubt many (or any) firms will even care about the GPA. And at most this is what? 3% of his total GPA? What does it matter?

I completely disagree with the above poster who said to shrug it off. Take it from me (I already have a second graduate degree) when I tell you that your undergrad GPA can be ridiculously welded to you--depending on your industry or field, it can follow you around for ten years after graduating. And you did A- work; that's what you deserve.

That can't be true. Law School GPA is much more important when looking for a legal career, and I doubt many (or any) firms will even care about the GPA. And at most this is what? 3% of his total GPA? What does it matter?

Though law school GPA is important, so is undergrad GPA. As I've said before, I got a firm job for 1L summer with no law school grades, so I know I was carried by the strength of my law school, my personality, and my undergraduate record. I don't think it will follow you around for 10 years, but it can certainly help or hurt you when it comes to getting summer employment.